Two entities with a great deal of experience in the Bakken will be working with the Battelle laboratories on a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) drilling project in North Dakota that’s not looking for oil.

Rod Osborne, Battelle’s energy business line manager, said that although some of the drilling done by Schlumberger will be similar to that in the Bakken for oil and gas, its purpose is to gather data on crystalline bedrock formations 16,000 feet below the surface. DOE will study their suitability for nuclear waste storage.

Geothermal energy development will be another potential application, according to Battelle.